Railway freight rates hike unfair: Jayalalithaa

Chennai, Sep 28 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa Saturday urged the centre to withdraw the 15 percent busy season hike in railway freight rates that will be effective from Oct 1, saying the hike would be unfair.

In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa said: "When the railway freight movement is uniform throughout the year, then classifying the period October-June as busy season artificially and charging busy season rates is unfair."

She said the Railways, under its dynamic pricing policy, has classified July-September as a lean season and October-June as a busy season. The freight rates are higher during the busy season.

Jayalalithaa said due to the hike, there will be an all-round increase in the prices of essential commodities and also in the raw material prices for factories resulting in higher inflation.

She said the hike will hurt the people and the Indian economy rather than stabilising it.